|
|
Completed and issued its "Special Airworthiness" certificate from the FAA in April, 1997, my project was now an airplane, a "Dulinsky/Fisher FP202". Flown as "Experimental" in the "Amateur Built" category, the first flight of 45 minutes was in May from East Kansas City Airport, with my wife Theresa, video-taping the takeoff and climbout. I would have flown longer, but I had already finished the control, stall speed, and engine checks planned for the first flight. After landing, we celebrated the successful completion of a long process. |
|
|
The Fisher FP202 "Koala" has been in production as a kit since about 1983, and is a wood structure, fabric covered, single seat plane originally designed as an ultralight. The kit isn't one of the "Attach Part A to Part B" types, rather the kit consisted of a long box of wood stock in various cross-section dimensions, plywood cut approximately to shape, aluminum tubing, hardware and other metal parts, some miscellaneous items, and about 18 sheets of plans. (The stock is cut per the plans and laid out on a 4' x 16' table for building the fuselage, wings, and tail sections.) Since I was building it as an experimental, I took the liberty of making numerous changes to suit me, including using the "Stits" covering materials and process, a larger engine, fuel tank, etc. The flying qualities can be thought of as something like a very light weight Cub, although a little slower. (For a review of my plane, check the link to "202 Answers".) |
||
|
After flying mine for about 115 hours, I was still dissatisfied with the engine, so I brought it home to change to a different engine. This meant making many new parts such as the engine mount, fuel tank and system, instrument panel, exhaust, cowling, and other changes. Run-ups of the new engine have now been made but making the new cowling and a few other things have progressed slowly. (Some time off from working on the plane was taken due to a (new to us) older boat, and other projects.) |
|
|
|
Note:- Construction photos are large files - FP202 Construction Photo Pages |
||
